> If you've ever watched Goldfinger, you have to wonder if the real ploy isn't somewhere else, such as auctioning off DMs, blackmail, etc., and the bitcoin thing just proof of concept.
Motherboard is reporting some screenshots that apparently show some Twitter admin panel that allowed these hackers to take control. Assuming this panel has that kind of power, they potentially could see all DMs as well. However, why expose yourself if you can get in and out of these accounts and collect the info. I'm not sure I buy the diversion explanation.
>However, why expose yourself if you can get in and out of these accounts and collect the info. I'm not sure I buy the diversion explanation.
Perhaps they felt as though they already had everything they needed and didn't mind ending their access? That would be weird, though, because I imagine long-term, continued access to DMs would likely be more valuable than just cutting out now.
I'm being charitable to the hackers, but maybe using only one wallet is part of the ploy? You can prove your identify by sending 0.001 to an address if someone doubts you. But then again if you have the info you can reveal some of it as a proof. Maybe a way to get street cred by having a proof you did the attack?
this makes a lot of sense. The bitcoin is actually a proof of authenticity -- send a small quantity from that address to prove that your screenshots of the DMs are authentic.
It is perhaps a proof of ability, burning a zero day might be worth it, if you have others you can sell, also if the zero day was one time use or likely getting closed soon , the value might be not as high as it may look.
I've been thinking about this for a bit. Perhaps these were crypto scammers that discovered a God mode and used it. To actually monetize this hack in another way would mean getting in touch with some truly powerful/evil people and possibly putting yourself in danger.
Creating a couple of wallets and a website can be done mostly anonymously. Sure, the money is a lot less, but so is the risk.
They wouldn't know how much profit there'd be beforehand. If this was 2017-2018 I can imagine this being much more profitable. Plus it's lower risk compared to others.
